Masters of Privacy John Pavolotsky: California's privacy and AI legislative spree (October 2025)
California has enacted a sweeping wave of new privacy and AI laws in the past few days. From browsers finally reading opt-out signals to age verification, chatbot companions, data brokers and AI transparency, some of these laws will have a serious impact on the areas we mostly focus on (marketing, advertising, ecommerce, media).
We have discussed AB 566, SB 361, SB 53, AB 1043, AB 656, AB 853, and SB 243 with John Pavolosky, joining us for a second time.
Our guest is a partner at Stoel Rives in San Francisco. He is co-lead of the firm’s Technology Industry Group. He has also been chair of the Intellectual Property Section of the California Lawyers Association.
John has taught Technology Transactions Law at the UC Davis School of Law and Comparative Privacy Law at the Santa Clara University School of Law. John has also guest lectured on technology and privacy law topics at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business; the University of San Francisco School of Management; and Stanford University.
References:
* John Pavolotsky at Stoel Rives
* John Pavolotsky: How successful can US privacy laws be at regulating AI models and systems? (Masters of Privacy, June 2025)
* AB 566 (Opt-Out Preference Signal, October 8)
* AB 1043 (Digital Age Assurance Act, October 13)
* SB690, the law that could have done away with most CIPA lawsuits
* SB 361 (Expanded Data Broker Transparency Requirements, October 8)
* AB 56 (Social Media Warning Law, October 13)
* AB 656 (Social Media Account “Delete” Button, October 8)
* SB 243 (Companion Chatbots, October 13)
* Her, a Spike Jonze movie (2013)
* AB 853 (Amendment to the California AI Transparency Act, October 13)
* SB 53 (Transparency in Frontier AI Act, September 29).
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